Interviewing - How do you do it?

[FireEMSPolice]

Ok here is my problem:

In the past, a Supervisor would sit in on interviews with the Security Manager and give their thoughts on perspective applicants. However, now that we have a new Security Manager, he doesn't let us sit in on interviews like the former Security Manager used to. Instead, Security Officers appear out of the blue and when you ask him he confirms that he or she is the new officer. This puts Supervisors in a tizzy as we are not prepared for a new officer. It also seems as though the new officers are people he knows. The last 2 have been and I wonder if today's new hire is also.

By not sitting in on interviews, we don't get to know who we will be working with or if they are qualified. I have emailed my Security Manager to voice the Supervisors concerns.

Do you Supervisors get to sit in on interviews and get to voice your concerns?

[HotelSecurity]

Ok here is my problem:

In the past, a Supervisor would sit in on interviews with the Security Manager and give their thoughts on perspective applicants. However, now that we have a new Security Manager, he doesn't let us sit in on interviews like the former Security Manager used to. Instead, Security Officers appear out of the blue and when you ask him he confirms that he or she is the new officer. This puts Supervisors in a tizzy as we are not prepared for a new officer. It also seems as though the new officers are people he knows. The last 2 have been and I wonder if today's new hire is also.

By not sitting in on interviews, we don't get to know who we will be working with or if they are qualified. I have emailed my Security Manager to voice the Supervisors concerns.

Do you Supervisors get to sit in on interviews and get to voice your concerns?

I am in an interesting position in that I do the hiring, firing, payroll etc etc plus I also do one of the shifts. When someone comes for an interview I am on duty. We usually don't get to sit down too long. Ihey follow me on calls & patrols. This gives me the chance to see how they react to different situations & gives me a general idea on their work ethic. (Do they lag behind on the way to the call, are they too excited or do they show interest & keep up with me?)

[FireEMSPolice]

HotelSecurity, thats interesting. However, do you let your Supervisors sit in on interviews?

[Rooney]

Normally the way I do things is this.
1. I will review the applicants resume, cover letter, etc.
2. I will give the resume to the person that will be supervising the applicant for thier review.
3. If the resume is good to both of us I will call them in for an interview.
4. I will take the first five-ten minutes alone with the individual to get a sense of them both professionally and personally.
5. I will call in the supervisor for a few minutes and talk together.
6. I will leave the applicant with the supervisor for awhile.
7. I will call the supervisor out and ask thier opinion on the person and if they would make a good fit within our organisation.
8. If we agree to hire the person we will go and tell them "welcome aboard" and give them all of the paperwork to fill out and the "bottle".
9. Then we will discuss start date and I will leave the person with the supervisor to give a tour and get better acquainted with the co-workers.

If the bottle comes back clean which they normally do, the person is now an employee.

On a side note: Considering what field I am in and who our clients are, it amazes me that people will apply with numerous drugs in thier systems. I have had a couple applicants that had just about every illicit drug imaginable in thier system.

[NRM_Oz]

Working in a store LPM role we would advertise for crew to join our premium stores and wondered why we got no-1. HR clowns were culling good resumes because they had NFI of what to look out for - ie. someone with HR or financial qualifications and security experience for LP or Investigations roles. After another LPM and I found the 300 resumes that were culled, we selected 40% for review and pulled in 35 for interviews knocking off those who were not suitable for premium stores but who were great for suburban stores.

I have been in several roles where I just arrived, met those who hired me and just turned up to take over the role. 1 colleague had been using my office for storage and never knew I was to be taking over the office come Monday. It was a hard lesson learned no doubt. This role I walked in, signed in at the front door and headed off into my office (door was unsecured and came out 2 hours later having read briefing notes. No-1 knew I was even here.

[HotelSecurity]

HotelSecurity, thats interesting. However, do you let your Supervisors sit in on interviews?

I am THE Supervisor.

[OpsMan1922]

Interviews can be tricky. I'm fortunate that my supervisory staff has at least 2 years experience at the facility and can identify problem applicants pretty quickly.

Usually, I'll conduct the interview with the Account Manager and/or the shift supervisor (if available). I'll let the Manager/Supervisor ask questions and get a feel for how the interview is going.

I monitor all the interviews and interject/take over when necessary. I feel it is a great training tool for the supervisory staff should they ever want to continue in the security field.

[SecTrainer]

One of the areas of training I provide to supervisors is the hiring interview. It is ideal if the supervisor can participate in the interviewing, but sometimes scheduling conflicts, etc. can make that difficult to arrange.

If the supervisor can't participate, I still would never hire anyone without (at the very least) discussing the applicant with the supervisor, who would have the opportunity to review the applicant's app/resume, the results of the background/reference check, and any relevant entrance test scores. I might hold this discussion prior to my own final interview with the applicant to see if the supervisor has any questions he would like me to ask on his behalf.

And for damn sure, I would never, ever "surprise" a supervisor with a new-hire. Talk about poor management...

One company I trained for, the supervisors did the reference checking as well. I liked that idea very much, and we do training in reference checking and LE-level background investigations (just short of "secret" government standards). Having the supervisor do the reference checks vastly increases the value of the subsequent interview because now the supervisor knows a lot about the applicant going into the interview...and also knows what he wants to learn from the interview.

[BadBoynMD]

Personally, I've adopted the oral board type interview environment, from the police department. Basically, there is a 3 step process.

1. Meeting with HR to go over all your information, and obtain additional information if needed.

2. Oral boards consisting of a supervisor, police officer and a property manager. Afterwards, the board will make it's recommendation to me on each applicant.

3. Interview with my me.

The way I see it, most people won't want to go through such a process if they just want a paycheck. Therefore, the bad seeds will likely not even apply for a position, but those that want to test the waters may not even continue on after step 2. However, theres always that 1%.